Bundt Cakes are some of my favorite cakes in the world!! My mom makes the best Bundt Cake EVER!! So of course I am slightly obsessed with this type of cake! I have this super quick, super easy, NEVER-FAIL recipe!! Even my BF loved this Blueberry Bundt Cake I made, even though he doesn’t like sweets or fruits!!! So that should give an indication of how good it is!!!

Here’s what I did:

Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until you get a cream-like consistency that is a light yellow color.

Add the eggs, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mix the flour and vanilla (I did not have cake flour so I used all purpose and added baking powder); Add the flour little by little, in badges, Alternating the adding of the Flour with the adding of milk, and beating well after each addition. You are done with the electric mixer.

In a separate bowl, Take 2 tablespoons of flour and powder the blueberries and set them aside.

Prepare the mould you will bake your cake in, I buttered the mould and covered it in flour. When the mould is ready, spread about 1/3 of the Cake Mix into the mould, then add about 1/2 of the blueberries, cover the blueberries with cake mix, add another layer of blueberries and a final layer of cake mix.

Place in a Cold oven at 150C for 1 hour; increase the temperature to 175C and bake for another 15-30 mins or until you stick a tooth pick and it comes out clean.

Easy, breezy, right?? When ready I just sprinkled 1-2 tablespoons of Confectioner’s Sugar on top and Voila! It’s ready to serve!!! Perfect to go with some afternoon Tea!!

Ingredients

1 Lemon

1 small Cucumber

10 Mint Leaves

1 small piece of Fresh Ginger Juiced (Optional)

1 to 2 Liters of Water

A friend of mine recently asked me to help her find a flavored water she could drink all day, everyday. Like me, she is not in the habit of drinking a lot of water during the day, which as we all know may lead to problems with our health! So this week I have been experimenting with making healthy, naturally flavored waters, and also reading about healthy detox waters that may help with weight loss!

I found out that for this specific detox water recipe every ingredient has its purpose: Cucumber has diuretic properties which help flush toxins; Mint aids in digestion and also gives a nice flavor to the water; lemon is loaded with vitamin C; and ginger helps improve the body’s absorption of nutrients!

Here’s how I make this Healthy Detox Water:

Wash and Cut the cucumber, cut the lemon and add to a jar.

Add the mint.

Add just a tiny splash of juiced ginger (optional) and a 1/2 lemon juice.

Add the water and place in fridge for about 1 hour or 2.

This is how to typically make Lemon Cucumber Detox water.

Now, During my last trip to Venezuela, my mom got me in the habit of drinking a nice and cold glass of sparkling water with a couple of drops of freshly squeezed lemon every morning; She told me how it would help boost my immune system because of the vitamin C. I generally liked the idea so I have been doing that since last September. This week since I have been reading about Detox waters I decided to combine all that into my “daily ritual”!

So here’s what I call my “Detox Cucumber Lemonade”:

Cut the 1/4 cucumber and 1/2 lemon and add it to a really big/tall glass.

Add 5 mint leaves and ginger juice.

Add a can of soda or a bottle of sparkling water.

Squeeze 1/4 of a lemon juice.

Drink up! Once I finish this mix I will re-use the ingredients in it and make a regular pitcher of Detox water.

It is so important to drink enough water every day (2 liters per day is what’s recommended)!! Aside from obvious health reasons, keeping properly hydrated helps with weight loss!! Has it ever happened to you that you feel like you are still hungry, even after you have eaten what you know is a sensible portion?? Well, sometimes our bodies confuse thirst with hunger…so when you drink enough water during the day, it becomes a lot easier to recognize when you are actually hungry and in need of food, and when it’s just a random craving!

Ingredients

My very dear friend Chacha shared with me a few weeks ago her amazing Morning Power Mix idea! She told me that her usual breakfast is:

1 handful of the nuts and dried fruits mix made with the above mentioned ingredients

1 Fresh Fruit

A splash of Milk of your preference!

This power mix idea, as my friend said herself, “is extremely delish and gives energy for the rest of the day! And in Summer weather, combined with some Homemade Mango Sorbet, this breakfast is to Die For!!”

I believed her, but since I am not a Breakfast person I twitched her idea a bit and made it into an On the Go Power Mix for snacking! This has been saving my life the past weeks! I simply carry a jar with me everywhere I go and when Hunger strikes I am ready!! Guys this is how you keep yourself from eating something unhealthy and greasy, always, always, always be prepared!!!

What Exactly did I do for this On The Go Power Mix?? I went to this store in Athens called CARPO (they also have one in London) where they sell Sundried Fruits with NO ADDED Sugars!! Super healthy, I think. So I got this time:

Mango

Pineapple

Papaya

Banana

Nectarine

Blueberries

Cranberries

Then I went to the farmers Market and got some nice, big variety of nuts:

Walnuts

Almonds

Hazelnuts

Sunflower Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds

Pistachios

Cashews

Now just get creative and mix in the colors you like best! I made several of these little Jars with the Power Mix, closed them up and just take one every time I need to go out for errands. Because they are closed very well, they have lasted me about 10 days or so….

And A Fruit Bouquet, also for decorating but obviously a healthy and refreshing treat guests can enjoy eating during the party;

For entertainment I decided to go for Do It Yourself activities guests could choose to do throughout the party. Originally I wanted to try doing some of the typical baby shower games I have played in other showers I’ve attended, but the truth of the matter was that I don’t think it was the “right audience” for it! Since it was an Girls Only Baby Shower, I thought it would be the right audience for:

Activity #1:Paint your Nails Baby Blue or Baby Pink! Since we don’t know whether it’s a boy or a girl guests could choose to do their nails Blue for Boy, Pink for Girl or both if you just have no clue!! By the way, I got these cute colors also from Jumbo for like 99 cents each!! Totally worth the expense, Even if they only last a few days….its less than 1 euro!!

Activity #2: Design the Baby Bib! We knew our friend was low on bibs, so we got 10 different bibs that guests could make a cute drawing for the baby. We got all washable markers so that she can just wash and use some of the bibs, and she said that some of her favorites she might frame and use as decoration for the baby’s room! Cute idea, right??

Activity #3: Make your Bracelet or Necklace! Honestly, the younger kids had way more fun with this one than the adults..but a couple guests were really crafty and made some amazing designs for bracelets and keychains!

That’s it….this is my first time putting together a Baby Shower and Doing It Myself!! and it was a blast for me! I never knew I could be creative enough to make these decorations! I hope this will inspire you to get creative and start some Do It Yourself Projects!! Be sure to share them with me!!

If you’ve seen my previous posts you know that I threw a Baby Shower for my friend the other day, for which my friend and I made all the decorations ourselves.

Originally, For the give away gifts we planned to get some small flower plants to give to each guest, but my friend was really sick the entire week before the shower and thus we didn’t really have time to go buy the plants we wanted to give away. So the day of the party we had to come up with something cute to give that was also quick and easy to make ourselves right then and there! We went to this store here in Greece called “Jumbo”, which pretty much has anything and everything for really, really cheap prices. So we found some cute baby bottles, some nice colored ribbons and loads of colorful candies to stuff each baby bottle with!

And so we made some Candied Baby Bottle Give Aways:

15 Baby Bottles (or however many you need)

2 packs of Ribbons (for different colors)

About 7 bags of candy, this will vary depending on what you use!; We got:

3 x 500 gr Chocolate Filled m&m ‘s

3 x 500 gr Peanut m&m’s

1 x 500 gr Sorted Fruit Candies

What we did next:

Fill up each bottle with the different candies! Mix it up however you want!

Ingredients

1 Large Pineapple

1 Large Melon

1/2 Kilo of Strawberries

1/2 Kilo Grapes

You’ll also need:

Different Shapes Cookie Cutters (flower shape, hearts, moons, etc)

Wooden Skewers

A Vase

Last time I went back home to Venezuela, I was able to be at my big brother’s birthday party…that is were I first saw a beautifully made, but store-bought, flower bouquet! I thought the concept was great! I mean a beautiful decoration that is also a healthy snack for your guests!! So when I had the chance, once back here in Greece, I decided to give it a try and make one myself with some fresh fruits I got from the Farmer’s Market!

This is super easy and quick to make, which is great since fruits can get a little ugly-looking when cut for a long time….I made this Fruit Bouquet about 1 hour before my friend’s Baby Shower (but I was done within 30 mins).

Here’s what I did:

Peel and Cut the fruits, let’s take the pineapple as an example: Take off all of the skin from the pineapple and slice it horizontally into pieces that are about 1 cm thick.

Take the Cookie cutter shaped as a flower, place it right in the middle of each pineapple slice, so that the hard center of the pineapple lines up with the center of the cookie cutter, and press down your cookie cutter until it comes out the other side, having as a result a nice pineapple flower.

Repeat this procedure with the rest of your pineapple slices, and do the same for the melon. I made melon hearts and moons.

Once you have all your Pineapple Flowers, melon hearts and moons ready, take a wooden skewer and pinch the fruit with it:

For the melon I pinched the moons vertically so that I could place them as a supporting base layer in the vase and help support the rest of the fruit.

The pineapples I pinched horizontally allowing about 1 cm of the tip to come through. Then I took either a grape or a strawberry and pinched it to the tip of each pineapple flower. I placed these on top of the melon moons, making a second level/layer in the vase.

Take the leftover strawberries and grapes and stick them individually in a skewer and place them all right in the center of the vase, filling up all possible empty spaces.

I then tied some bows around the vase for decoration and served!! It was such a hit! The fruits were incredibly refreshing given the weather…we ate them all by the end of the baby shower, even the little kids wanted to try the “flowers”! And honestly, it took me about a half hour to make….easy, breezy!

So, my very good friend is having a baby soon and me and a couple other girlfriends decided to throw her a Baby Shower!!! I took the opportunity to get a little creative and try and make all the decorations instead of just buying them! We decided to make the give-away gifts, as well as Do It Yourself party activities, in addition to the Diaper cake!!

I actually got the idea for Diaper Cake decoration on Pinterest; it seemed so simple that I gave it a try and It came out really nice (I think, at least)..it took me like less than 30 mins to put it together!!! Can you believe it???

What I used:

At least 2 round boxes; the size will depend on how big you want your cake. I used a 20 cm diameter box for the base and a 10 cm diameter box for the second layer.

About 50 Diapers (this may change if you use different size boxes)

Ribbons (feel free to use different colors), Scissors and Tape

What I did:

Take Each individual diaper and roll it up like a mexican “Burrito” or “Fajita”, use a neutral color ribbon to tie a knot around the diaper. Set aside and repeat with the rest of the diaper (as many as you need to cover your boxes in them).

Place each diaper in a vertical position around the exterior of your round box. Mine did actually “stand up” on their own, but if you are having difficulties, feel free to use a little bit of tape to help you fix them in place.

Once the diapers are all lined up and surround the box, use your ribbon to tie a bow around them; make sure the ribbon is position just about the middle of the diaper, this will give more stability to the cake.

Repeat the above process with your other boxes.

For the top part, the final level of the cake, I didn’t need to use a box, I simply put together 5-6 diapers and tied a bow around them.

Decorate!! We added ribbons, bows, cute shaped lollipops and at the top a small gift for the baby!

If you don’t have a baby shower to throw…well…you can also make this decoration cake with anything that you can roll up like I did the diapers, for example: Towels (for a house warming party or summer party), t-shirts or even better, DIY t-shirts, fabric napkins if you are having a fancy dinner party, gloves, socks, scarves, etc….just be creative!!